A pulse reader on the electricity meter tells you how much the whole house uses. It does not tell you how much of that goes to the heat pump, the boiler, the workshop or the kitchen circuit. For that you need a meter on the circuit itself, and the Peacefair PZEM-004T V3 is a cheap way to get one: a small board that measures voltage, current, power,
Shelly relays and plugs are among the easiest Wi-Fi devices to use with Home Assistant without a cloud. The official Shelly integration talks to each device directly over the local network, and the device pushes its state changes to Home Assistant instead of waiting to be asked. A light switched from the wall shows up in Home Assistant almost immed
A notification that says "the garage door has been open for 20 minutes" is useful. One with a Close button under it is better, because you can deal with the problem from the lock screen without opening a dashboard. The Home Assistant Companion app for iOS and Android supports exactly that: buttons on a notification that send an event back to Home A
A leak sensor under the washing machine is cheap. On its own it only beeps or sends a notification, and if nobody is home the water keeps running. Pair it with a motorised valve on the main water line and Home Assistant can close the supply within seconds of the first drop reaching the sensor.
Most garage door and gate openers already have a wall button. Press it once and the door moves; press it again and it stops or reverses. An ESP32 with a relay can press that button for you, and two reed switches can tell Home Assistant whether the door is really open or closed. The parts cost little and the whole thing runs locally, with no cloud a
